The Karate Kid Part III (1989) Reviews

• The Karate Man Part III

  Joel_S2004-07-29

  Spoiler Alert This film is about a 35 year old karate boy and his wise old martial arts instructor. Ralph Macchio plays the title role, and seems to have gained about 45 pounds since the second film. Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi come back from Okinawa (the story of Part II) and continue to dress and think like it's 1984, even though the rest of the world knows it's 1989. The brutal karate teacher from the earlier films, John Kreese, has been run out of business thanks to the bad PR that resulted in his defeat at the hands of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Kreese closes down his Cobra Kai dojo. This film is from 1989, and the 45 year old Kreese decides to call the karate deal quits, but his billionaire 25 year old Vietnam war buddy talks him out of it. Kreese's 25 year old war buddy from the 60s is named Terry Silver, and he has a pony tail just like Steven Segal. Terry Silver also knows karate, just like Steven Segal. Terry Silver is also a pompous, full of himself a-hole, just like Steven Segal. Terry Silver is also younger then The Karate Man, Daniel LaRusso. Terry Silver helps Kreese get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, using some outdated racist lingo like "slope" in reference to Miyagi. Hmmm, maybe Terry Silver was around for the 60s? Steven Segal, errr, I mean Terry Silver sets up a new Cobra Kai dojo and enlists the aid of a bad boy karate teenage punk named Mike Barnes. Mike Barnes is a teenager with a ruthless style of fighting, and he is determined to defeat the Karate Man. Terry Silver promises Mike Barnes a hefty sum of money if he is able to beat the Karate Man in the karate tournament. Terry Silver lures the Karate Man to the dark side of the force, against Miyagi's noble Jedi ways. The Karate Man trains under Silver and starts to become evil like Mike Barnes. In a subplot, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel open up a Bonsai tree store, and they are repeatedly attacked by Mike Barnes, who wants the Karate Man to defend his championship. Daniel briefly gets a high school aged girlfriend, but then she dumps him when she finds out he is 35 and she never shows up for the second half of the movie. But after the Karate Man beats up an 18 year old kid at a dance club, he runs home to Mr. Miyagi feeling bad for what he has done. Daniel repents and Miyagi forgives him, Daniel then goes back to the Cobra Kai dojo to tell Terry Silver that he can no longer train under him. Terry Silver says, "you owe me more then that Danny boy". Mike Barnes and John Kreese show up and start beating up on the Karate Man, the Karate Man makes a run for the door after a few beatings. Mike Barnes is hot in pursuit of him outside. But then out of nowhere, as usual, comes Mr. Miyagi to save the day. Miyagi throws Mike Barnes back into the Cobra Kai dojo and knocks out the teenager after another punch. Miyagi then takes on Terry Silver and John Kreese after they make a few more bigoted comments against Asians. Miyagi easily defeats the both of them, and finally agrees to retrain the Karate Man. Terry Silver tells Miyagi that Cobra Kai dojos will open up everywhere and he won't even be a memory. Daniel yells back, "Yes he will! You won't!" Mr. Miyagi then tells Daniel "come, now we do kata!", and they do the kata on the beach, on the top of a mountain, and in Miyagi's backyard. After a few days of this kata training with Mr. Miyagi, the Karate Man enters the All-Valley Under 18 karate tournament for boys. The Karate Man does not have to fight the other young boys this time around, as their is a new rule saying he only needs to fight once, lucky for him. The punk teenager Mike Barnes makes it to the championship round and starts to once again beat up on the Karate Man. The Karate Man is out of his league with Mike Barnes, despite defeating Johnny Lawrence in the first film, and defeating Chosen in a fight to the death in the second movie. The Karate Man seems to have forgotten everything he learned. After getting severely beat up by the teenager Mike Barnes, the Karate Man tells Miyagi to throw in the towel. Mr. Miyagi comes to the Karate Man and tells him not to give up but to use the secret kata that he taught him. The man-boy gets up off the mat and proceeds to do the super secret Miyagi kata from Okinawa. Mike Barnes is stunned when he sees the kata, and actually waits for the Karate Man to finish his entire form before he attacks. When Mike Barnes finally lunges, the Karate Man in a single move flips him over and punches him to get the winning point. Mr. Miyagi and the 35 year old boy celebrate with a hug. THE END.

• It's kinda like the first two movies, just without the heart and decent characters

  Mr-Fusion2014-09-23

  I've gotta say, I was surprised by the ending to THE KARATE KID PART III. Daniel was physically outmatched (yeah, I know, he always is), but it was just nice to see something good come out of all of this. And seeing him outsmart the other guy was kinda nice. But there's a dour tone to this entire movie, and it all seems a bit silly. Alright, so Kreese has bottomed out, and he's looking to rise from the muck and destroy Daniel LaRusso. That's kinda by-the-numbers for a second sequel, but I can see how they'd go with this for the hook. But the plan is to put the kid through psychological torment and macho head games to finally break his spirit and put the hurt on him. And it's all at the behest of the always-leering Terry Silver. They're just such one-dimensional bad guys. Pitting Daniel against Miyagi didn't make much sense because it could've all been handled with some rational explaining (but Daniel this time around is more hotheaded than ever). Pat Morita makes this all sorta worthwhile because he well wears the weariness of a character that loses so much in the story. But I was surprised at how unsympathetic LaRusso was in this movie, and it's not very well-written. I've gotta wonder how this movie is different from Kamen's original script because it all feels very off. It's not a bad movie, just . . . silly. 5/10

• Deeply flawed, but undeserving of 4 razzie nominations

  suadabeslagic19762015-06-15

  The Karate Kid, Part III、as the title suggests, is the third film in the Karate Kid film series, released in 1989, directed by John Avlidsen, and starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel and Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi. The Karate Kid film series is a rather typical example of other 1980s film series (such as Robocop) which just run out of steam as time goes on to the extent that they began with a bang and ended with a whimper. Despite its flaws however, The Karate Kid, Part III isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be and is certainly no Robocop 3. This review will discuss the problems with the movie as well as what it gets right, with an overall assessment of the Karate Kid original film series as a whole. One of the biggest problems with this movie is the lack of continuity with the Karate Kid Part II, which for all its flaws did genuinely advance the story and develop Daniel and Miyagi's character. The film is fairly graceless in its dumping of Daniel's love interest Kumiko; it's explained that she just got a job in Japan that she couldn't turn down. This just didn't strike me as believable, perhaps because they had done it before in Part II. Daniel's relationships always happen to end between films? It's frankly insulting when sequels hit the reset button like this. But the real continuity problem is one that is never addressed at all, and that is the relationship between Yuki and Miyagi. This is not presented as a mere superficial teenage romance, but instead as true love. Miyagi even says that he would stay in Okinawa, if not for the people trying to kill him. So why doesn't Miyagi stay in Okinawa after the conclusion of Part II, or take Yuki to America? It's never explained. This film takes a dump on Miyagi and Daniel's development; the second film may as well have never happened. Moreover, all the balance and self-control that Daniel developed in the first two films is gone, indeed Daniel if anything seems even more neurotic and unbalanced than he was at the beginning of the original film. Daniel is whiny and angsty, going into long diatribes about his own inadequacy. This would be less irksome if it were a response to something far more drastic; but in Part II the villains were trying to kill him and his master; in Part III they are just trying to take away his title as champion by defeating him in a local karate tournament. So, Daniel is cool-headed when threatened with death in a foreign land, but the prospect of losing his title to a bunch of local punks turns him into a nervous wreck? The film also fails to find a coherent theme, besides poorly retreading the original. That said, the film does manage to get some things right. As whiny as Daniel is, he retains something of his likability, even if it is diminished. We also have the things that make the whole series fun; wonderfully over-the-top villains and pseudo-eastern wisdom. The emotional core of the film is tarnished but intact; that of the relationship between Daniel and Miyagi. These two characters, although somewhat botched, still work together well. None of the original Karate Kid films are by themselves incoherent, but taken as a whole the series is rather lopsided. They do get progressively worse as the series goes on, and by the end of Part III one is glad they never made a fourth film (unless you count the Next Karate Kid, and I don't). Still, while it's a shame that they never managed to quite recapture the magic of the first film, I'm glad I got to spend 3 films in the company of these terrific characters.

• Unintentionally hilarious – does it deserve a 1, or a 10?

  bayou_hannibal2012-07-27

  I don't know how many stars to give this movie, because a 1 tells you not to see it, and a 10 tells you that it is an excellent movie. Truth be told, this is one of the worst movies ever made, and that is why you absolutely must see it. It is more unintentionally funny than most actual comedies, and it provides as much entertainment value by accident as lots of movies do on purpose. It is like a train wreck, but with this wreck, the passengers are all slipping on banana peels as they exit the train. Here is what I think happened – the producers decided that they wanted to cash in on the franchise one more time, so they decided to bring back Mr. Miyagi and Daniel for one last hurrah. The script writers cooked up another story about Daniel fighting the Cobra Kais, getting beaten up, competing in the karate tournament once again, and then winning in the end. Then Ralph Macchio showed up for day 1 pudgy and out of shape, and panic erupted. Quickly, the script was rewritten with all of Daniel's fight scenes taken out, and the tournament rules changed so that all Daniel had to do to defend his title was show up for the last fight. I find it next to impossible that anyone associated with this movie honestly expected the audience to buy this, but they were far enough into the project that they had no choice but to finish it. So what do we get? We get an hour and a half of poor Danny getting abused over and over again. He's chubby. He's pushing 30, but he is still 17 in the movie and he sounds like he is about 13. He gets punched. He gets taunted. He gets kicked in the balls. His, uh, "girlfriend" gets harassed and almost assaulted as some bullies trash Mr. Miyagi's shop, but Mr. Miyagi does absolutely nothing but push the bullies out the door. At no point, does it cross anyone's mind to call the cops. At some point, we start sympathizing more with the bullies than Daniel. He is such a wimp with no defensive instincts, and at this point, Mr. Miyagi seems like an insensitive dope because he makes Daniel get beaten to a pulp multiple times before he will finally agree to train him. You can tell that just about everybody acting in this movie knows that it's a stinker, so why bother trying? Ralph Macchio totally phones in his performance, and so does Pat Morita (Miyagi). The minor actors in the movie, like Thomas Ian Griffith (the evil pony tail guy) and Martin Kove (the big evil trainer from the first movie) seem to get the joke here. They play over the top, exaggerated cartoon villains, whose only function is to be pointlessly mean. They are grown men, but their lives revolve around torturing a 17 year old boy as revenge for winning a karate tournament. At the end, Daniel finally faces down the big bully. Only this time, he doesn't try to throw any punches or block anything. He just stands there like a doughboy punching bag, yelping out in pain with his girly voice. I have always thought that the greatest achievement of the first two movies was that they made Daniel's triumphs believable and convincing. Since Mr. Miyagi focused on defense and maintaining a positive attitude, Daniel could survive a fight against a privileged bully and a brutal Okinawan street fighter who did not have this kind of positive influence. But in this one, it's just a massive beating. It is just so hard to take seriously that you get a sadistic pleasure out of it, kind of like watching somebody get hammered with a 2X4 in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Maybe the worst thing about this movie is that deep down, somewhere buried underneath the terrible acting and the awful script, there were some good ideas here. A Vietnam vet befriending Daniel and teaching him the darker side of martial arts – sounds like a story with a lot of potential. Maybe the world isn't inherently a good place. Maybe life has predators and prey, and maybe a Vietnam vet is an appropriate guy to teach that to Daniel, who up to this point is still pretty naïve. Maybe a movie that questioned the idealism of the first two and dug into some gray areas could have been really good. But, nope! We just got a tired rehash of the lessons from the first two movies, but they don't even seem to make sense here. Our Vietnam vet is actually just a villain – so cartoony that he even goes around a corner for a sneaky evil laugh while he listens to Daniel punch a piece of wood. Ouch! This one shows up on cable somewhere every once in a while, and if you can catch it, I highly recommend it. Invite some friends over, have a few beers, and have a few laughs at the expense of this tire fire.

• Dear God, Please Rid Us Of Daniel!!!

  Khaled Yafi-012000-06-07

  What is Daniel Larusso's problem? Why after three torturous films is he no more a man than when he first moved to L.A? I just don't get it!! In the first installment he had an excuse to be a sissy; he was being bullied by the bad boys of his new school and he didn't know how to defend himself. I accept that! In the second one, he was in a foreign land and was being bullied by some oriental bad-boy. He gets his butt kicked throughout until the last scene when in the face of near death, he looks into Miyagi's eyes and gets the inspiration to overcome fear and win the day and the girl. I don't buy it but I can bear it!! In the third installment, he projects so much obnoxiousness and pathetic emotion that you hope that his clearly, superior opponents will kick his ass once and for all. No such luck!! In this film Daniel is forced to defend his title which requires him to fight only the final match.(Easy enough no?) His opponent is some blonde punk who is being trained by Kreese (the disgraced teacher in the first film whose nose Miyagi twists to render him unconscious)and backed by the finances of Terry Silver, a smooth Karate kicking business man. Silver, played with nice slick touches by Thomas Ian Griffith is watchable as he disrupts Daniel's level of discipline and successfully convinces Daniel that he wants to help him defend his title after Miyagi refuses. Daniel, idiot that he is, can't see the charade and accepts his help. Griffith projects some air of smoothness but doesn't quite convince he's really all that cool. Still some Karate student that I know, Amir Hashim-Zada seems to think he epitomizes 21st Century Maleness. To each his own, I guess! The three of them have a business deal going that requires Daniel to fight the final and get beaten in order for their new Dojo's to be opened. Miyagi refuses to train Daniel because he feels Daniel's reasons for defense are wrong. Please excuse Daniel for getting beaten up throughout the film and being forced to enter the tournament!!. Sorry Miyagi, how unreasonable Daniel has become!!! Anyway enough plot.... What I don't get is why Daniel complains and cries consistently about his circumstances and seems to have forgotten any skills that Miyagi has taught him over the past couple of films. That is until, in the heat of the moment, he looks into Miyagi's eyes and everything comes back!!(How realistic!!). I loved the first film, for although Daniel was predictably annoying, he was living out the zero to hero story we all love. And Miyagi became a household name that we couldn't not love. Incidentally, Miyagi remains good throughout the films. Without him the movie hasn't a leg to stand on. It's a real statement on the charisma of the leading man Macchio. He simply has none. The trouble with Daniel is that he has the weakest personality that doesn't ever appear to develop, despite all Miyagi's wisdom, until the last 2 minutes of the film. I can accept that these films don't expect that much from the viewer, but come on!!, we should at least believe that Daniel is a worthy hero by the end. I find it really funny that Miyagi likens Daniel's spirit to that of a bonsai tree with a strong root. Daniel seems to make Miyagi's wisdom and teachings look meaningless. Daniel ought to be a man's man by this film, but he still walks like a girl, he talks like a girl, and BY GOD he still FIGHTS like a girl!!!Any sympathy you may have mustered for him from the past two films is quickly dispensed in this film because he whines and cries when things consistently don't go his way. For God's Sake Daniel, are you that dense, since when do things go your way??? By now you should be man enough to deal with the bad things in life!!!! Everyone else does and most haven't had the privilege of Miyagi's teachings!! I must say the final scene is truly pathetic!!The bad boy is keen to win a point then lose a point thereby keeping the scores at 0-0. He wants Daniel to suffer (Don't we all?) so he claims a legitimate point then beats the life out of him to lose the point. The match makes it abundantly clear that Daniel is 5 belts worse than this guy. BUT the match tied at 0-0 thanks entirely to the bad-boy, goes into sudden death when Daniel searches deep inside of himself, giving the obligatory look to Miyagi, and pulls off one good move and wins the match. Then he has the arrogance to say "Yes We did It" as if he should have the audacity to think he deserved to win the fight. It could be poor writing or bad acting, or both, but it's a pity that even after 3 films, even my young girl cousin reckons she could beat up whimpy Daniel!! The irony of all of this, is that this film is shamefully watchable. I like it because Daniel forces giggles from the audience and Miyagi is always watchable as he chants his pearls of wisdom and does his various spiritual mantra's that are meant to mean something!! Sorry Miyagi, I didn't quite catch their significance this time around, and as much as I like you, I fear Daniel has not learned a bleeding thing from you since you met him!!!